Sts c4

• Early inhabitants


  • Relied on simple tools to hunt and gather food easily
  • Eventually developed more sophisticated tools to aid them in their endeavours
• Technology flourished


  1. With their explorations

  2. Innovations

  3. Experimentations
• Every discovery, innovation, and success contributed to human knowledge
• Human flourishing


  An effort to achieve self-actualization and the fulfilment within the context of a larger community of individuals with the right to pursue his/her own effort in a global perspective as a man of the world
• Martin Heidegger: 'Technology is a human activity as a result of achieving science'
• According to Aristotle, human flourishing

  Arises as a result of different components such as friendship, wealth, and power
• The Greeks believed that acquiring these qualities will bring happiness which allowed them to participate in the greater notion of good/goodness in life
• The concept of human flourishing today is different from that of the Greeks, who believed that humans of today are expected to become a "man of the world"
• The definition of a modern man

  Adaptable to change and never to be a burden upon others in a society<|>Well-rounded, skilled, adaptable, grounded, yet a meek servant leader who is constantly exercising his body, mind, and spirit for the benefit and for his selfless love for others<|>Never stops learning and adapts to new things, technologies, styles, trends, and new skills
• Science and technology changed the world and human lives are today flourishing globally in varied ways
• They have provided abundant food, clean water, cured diseases, making use of labour potentials, direct access to communication, and easy travel across the world
• They have expanded knowledge of natural world and the heavenly bodies
• Dreams became realities and lives are now longer, healthier, and more productive than ever
• Technological advances had frightening unintended consequences
• Technological innovation by science

  • Displaced labour force from a meaningful sense of work
  • Treated diseases viewed the human body as an object
  • Techniques to increase production output have brought dangerous adverse effects on human health and environment
  • Instant communication with others around the globe has created distance between a person and another person nearby
  • Enabled unprecedented mobility, somehow it undermined the stability necessary for family members to be closer and communities to strive harder
• People reasonably wonder if such knowledge and skills were being used to make people wiser, and make a better world
• Martin Heidegger's description of modern technology

  The age of switches, standing reserve, and stockpiling for its own sake<|>Manifested by mechanization and digitalization of many aspects of life from agriculture to communication and transportation among others
• Communication thru information technology is just a click of a fingertip
• Foods are harvested even out of season, and humans are no longer needed to work with the rhythms of nature since they now have learned to control it
• Modern technology challenged nature and demanded its resources that are most of the time forcibly extracted for human consumption and storage
• The changes of society and the lives of people now are attributed to the existence of science and technology
• The appreciation of the contributions of science and technology must be thoroughly examined not only for their functions and instrumentality but also their impact on humanity as a whole
• Not all are able to adapt comfortably in using the different kinds of technologies available
• In traditional societies


  The way of thinking is formed by customs and myths that forbid certain kinds of questions that would change their belief system
• In modern societies


  Release the power of questioning against the traditional forms of thought, and they demand that all customs and institutions justify themselves as useful for humanity
• Under this impact of demand, science and technology become the new basis for belief
• They reshaped the culture gradually and became "rational"
• Eventually, technology became a part of everyday life and technical modes of thought dominated all others
• The Philosophy of Technology

  Technology is neutral, it has no preference as between the various possible uses to which it can be useful<|>It is a kind of spontaneous product of the civilization, assumed contentedly by most people<|>Technology appears as purely instrumental and as a value free<|>It does not respond to inherent purpose, but it is simply a means serving subjective goals as human wish
• Technically speaking, the "means" is different from the "ends" and they are independent from each other
• In America, they say that "Guns don't kill people, people kill people"
• Guns are a "means" which is independent of the "ends" brought to them by the user, whether it is to rob a bank or to enforce the law
• Technological advancement and economic growth are related to each other
• The level of technology is important to determine the economic growth
• Technological progress keeps the economy growing
• According to Martin Heidegger, there are two definitions of technology

  1. it is a means to an end, 2) it is a human activity
• He urged people to envision technology as a mode of revealing as it shows so much more about humans and the world
• Whatever truth is uncovered, it will be something more meaningful and significant than the superficial or practical use of technology because it discloses or reveals the truth
• Human beings allow themselves to be swallowed by modern technology and thus lose the essence of being humans in this world
• They are constantly plugged on line wherever they are and thus no longer have the capacity for authentic personal encounters